Cht’mant

A varied race consisting of any and all combinations of arthropoids, Cht’mants are a somewhat rare site to see in the cosmos, but a more common site on Amethyn due to the few purebred survivors of the species going there to rebuild their kind, while spreading and guiding their offspring amongst the stars to Chromin 8.

Quick-Start Guide

• The Cht'mant are adept learners and have a innate understanding of organic matter. They get +5 to biology and cognition.
• Cht'mant bodies are unsuited for the use of metal, finding it largely uncomfortable to touch. In addition, a cht'mants exoskeleton can withstand intense heat but not brute force. They take 25% more brute damage but 15% less burn damage.
• A Cht'mant nervous system has no reaction to pain, making them immune to pain related effects. However, they are highly sensitive to light based stimuli and anything effect the eyes lasts three times longer.
• Cht'mant are capable of communicating in a hivemind, this functions as a long range method of speaking that science has yet to fully understand.
• Due to their arthropoid bodies Cht'mants are viewed by roaches as kin (normally) and thus do not provoke a hostile reaction (usually). The chemical blattedin, secreted by some roaches, has a healing effect on cht'mants be it injected, eaten, or breathed in.
• Shrapnel, due to its metallic nature, is highly damaging to a cht'mant and they should seek removal of it from their bodies as fast as possible. By extension, the metallic nature of nanites, prosthetics, augments, and cruciforms is just as toxic.

Cht'mants react differently to normal chemicals that would affect other colonists both positively and negatively. Here is a quick list:

• Diplopterum acts as Dexalin and can be found in most roach meat.
• Seligitillin acts as Kelotane and is found in the bodies of Seuche roaches.
• Starkellin acts as Bicaradine and is found in the meat Panzer roaches.
• Gewaltine acts as Dylovene and is found in the meat of Jager roaches.
• Fuhrerole acts as Peridaxon and is naturally found in the bodies of Fuhrer roaches.
• Blattedin, a common chemical found in roach meat and emitted in the air by certain roaches, acts as tricordizine.

It should also be noted that the roach chemicals are still addictive and delicious to Cht'mants, but due to benefiting from them, addiction does not hamper them. In essence, its addictive, but not debilitatingly so. A good doctor will always know that all roach chemicals over dose at 16 or greater units.

Some chemicals that are helpful to regular colonist don't work or work a lot less effectively on Cht'mants:

• Dexalin, Kelotane, Tricordrazine and Peridaxon do NOTHING to Cht'mants.
• Bicarardine heals for half as much brute damage as it does for others.
• Pain killers of any and all kind do nothing at all to assist cht'mants, rendering them and other anesthetics pointless.
• Dexalin Plus, Dermaline, Polystem, Alkysine, and Imidazoline are still fully effective on Cht'mants.

Biology

Cht'mant biology is extremely diverse given the vast territory they occupied on their old home world and their ability to organically alter their own genetics. This combined with an ability to cross breed with almost anything lead to an incredible array of arthropoid features amongst them. Having great resemblance of things such as moths, spiders, butterflies, ants, bees, beetles crabs, mosquitos, and all things in-between, it is quite common for two cht'mants to look nothing alike in some instances. Averaging 5 feet total the "spaced offspring" come in any and all varieties of arthropod like humanoid. However a few traits persist among all cht'mants.

Triple stomach digestion: 3 stomachs, starting with an organ that emits enzymes to crush and compress food into smaller sizes for comfortable holding of larger meals, followed by a needle lined gut to extract all fluids and nutrients while aiding in filtering out toxins and other waste materials, and lastly a more traditional stomach to break down the dried, crushed pulp that remains.

Antennae: Antennae are highly efficient sensory objects that aid in hearing, general smelling, sight, pheromone detection, and hive minded telepathy between each other. As a side effect, similar insects that rely heavily on pheromones such as roaches are calmed by the presence of a Cht'mant and will usually be passive.

Mandible jaw line: The Cht'mant face structure consists of a skull who's lower jaw is nothing more then chin with 2 mandible like structures attached at the base of the skull. When extended the chin drops and sags significantly thanks to highly stretchable cheeks, and can go about cutting up and pulling food down their gullet in large chunks. When not used for eating the mandibles collapse to support the chin and form a jawline that looks fairly humanoid.

Lack of teeth: Lacking teeth, Cht'mants will either swallow food in large batches, liquid form, or grind and tear chunks of their food up with the aid of their mandibles. Their insides handle all the digestion, and thus they only need to focus on getting food into their systems in agreeable sizes.

Featureless eyes: Cht'mant eyes are simple orbs of color. Highly adapted to low light environments, they do struggle a bit under intense light, especially if their antennae are compromised in some fashion, and with intense bursts of light can even have their vision damaged beyond natural repair.

Lack of pain receptors: Cht'mants removed all ability to feel pain in the traditional sense. They have a sense of touch and an acute awareness of what is going on with their bodies, but feel no pain.

Internal Metal Hypersensitivity Having exoskeletons that can handle intense bursts of heat easily, the Cht'mants only real fear is metal. Shrapnel and other sharp objects, manage their way past the tough shells of the warrior caste, and easily do incredible amounts of damage to their fragile internals. Physiological conditioning to fear metal based injuries have thus become common place, and their bodies even trigger autoimmune responses that leads to a rapid build up of toxins and inflammation of the brain. This leads to organ and brain damage, hallucinations, nerve damage leading to extreme agony,and a rapid decline in health. Some have managed to ignore their inner urges, while in some extreme cases can go so far as to rip out chunks of their bodies or even limbs to free them selves of the metal that has pierced their exoskeleton. This too has lead to great distrust of medical workers, especially surgeons equipped with only stock standard surgical gear, and as such many insist on remaining awake during operations on them not out of convenience, but out of fear and paranoia.

These features make up the typical cht'mant, whether they be part of the "spaced offspring" or part of the "second matriarch's "hive. Vast adaptations are also extremely common, but are on a case by case basis and involve everything from plant symbiosis, extra limbs, wings, more bug like body shapes, and chitin. It is also to be noted that while those outside of the second matriarchs hive can alter themselves, this ability is highly limited. Most adaptations done post maturation will be done through interaction among the species and take several weeks when done naturally or through modern genetic facilities that take several days.

Culture

In the modern age Cht’mant culture has evolved into two different groups. The second Matriarch followers and the spaced offspring. Members of the second Matriarch followers are pure bred Cht’mants who once lived on Chirk, the old and lost home world of the Cht’mants. Members of this group consisted of the few remaining Ru’s who follow the leadership of their elected queen, Abatha Ru. Others have also found honorary positions within the hive with being the same species or even an arthropoid not being a requirement for joining. Though only a pass from the queen herself is how admission into the hive is granted, without exception. The spaced offspring however are the offspring of the second matriarch and her followers. Sent off into space as a backup plan for re-population, neither group has any real sway or power over the other, nor seeks it as in the end they are all Cht’mants and their goal of survival is universal. Most spaced offspring simply seek to live their lives their way, and will rarely hold any sort of initial connection with others of their kind.

In the past when Cht’mants lived on Chirk, they had a very simple yet powerful class system that divided the species in four distinctive types.

Ru: Ru’s are the primary brain power of the hives. Possessing incredibly weak bodies and short stature, a hive would usually have less than ten at most and use them to perform primitive medical care, research, and genetic alterations to the rest of their hives. Being pre stone age at the time, their research mostly consisted of consuming any and everything to unravel its genetic code. Because of this the Ru brain and body was, and still is, a complex mystery.

Ra: Ra’s are the warriors and sentries of the hives. Numbering in the hundreds they would tower over Ru’s and even most workers, the Ro. Their bodies were highly adapted to fight and they knew only loyalty unto death for the good of the hive’s. Due to this, and the existence of the Ru, they often heavily lacked any cognitive thinking skills and would rely on winning battles by sheer weight of numbers or attrition.

Ro: Ro’s are the worker class, and were the most varied in terms of genetic alterations. Their purpose was always chosen at birth and their bodies altered to fit whatever best aids in this goal. Their tasks ranged from cutting through tough rock, processing raw ore into mineral rich gels for consumption, to even simple crop and animal care. They only knew what was needed for their purpose and literally nothing else.

In the modern times the spaced offspring see themselves being able to adapt a combination of traits from the three main castes and commonly mutate their ‘last names’ to represent this. A miner with intelligence would call themselves a Roru, or a highly trained fighter with medical abilities would call themselves a Rura. However this is mostly followed by those with intense care for their lineage and history, and only if other ties do not take precedence such as a last name from an adoptive family.

History

In the year 2600, first contact with the cht’mants and the Sol Federation had been achieved. After immense difficulty in actually locating the massive planet, later to be named Chirk, the Sol Federation immediately began deploying operations across the planet to prepare it for resource harvesting. Up until this time the cht’mants had existed as a pre-stone age species who overcame all environmental challenges through genetic alteration and their mental hive unity. The attack shook them to the core however and nearly wiped them all out, if not for the bug who would become the second matriarch. Acquiring the ability to speak very rough English common through vivisection on the few captured troops, Abatha Ru would trigger a drastic shift in her species way of life. Sol Federation forces, under the pretense the insectoids were non-sentient, continued to attack and exterminate the cht'mants en masse, those who remained were captured and as luck would have it Abatha Ru was one of those lucky few. Over time the soteria institute was drafted into researching the cht’mants and the Ru who had proven to be an oddity even among her own people for her, at the time, crude communication ability. Over time she, and a few others who had heard her call, became integrated with the staff of the research facility first in menial aspects as an experiment to see their intellectual capacity and later on as useful assets. Over the course of 20 years Chirk was reduced to nothing more than a crumbled shell of a mega planet and the Cht’mants reduced to such low population they were deemed extinct. However being the merit based system that soteria was, the insectile race found great success in the fields of science. In the year 2620 Abatha, and her tiny hive, went about sending off pods of their eggs, altered in such a way that the offspring would be unbound to them and free to live as individuals should they choose to. And thus the spaced offspring were not so much born as created. In the year 2644 the purebreds were given an opportunity to join Nakharan Mkne on the fabled blue space jump that sent soteria to Amethyn. They quickly set up shop and began work on a new hive, where the queen would grow her influence over a dominion of simple drone workers so that no matter what would happen to the colony, their kind would survive.

Present Day

In the current day Cht’mants exist in relative peace amongst themselves and others. The purebreds of the second matriarch continue their work for the Soteria, the good of the colony, and their own hive. While the spaced offspring that chose to come to the world as well continue on as simple arthropoid people with their own interests, dreams, and desires unique to each and every one of them.

Canon Species in the Sojourn Universe
Core Species Akula - Kriosans - Humans - Mar'qua - Sablekyne - Naramad - Abhuman
Non-Core Species Opifex - Cht’mant - Cindarite - Mycus - Folken - Aulvae - Minor Factions